Projects #3: Completed Father's Day Gift Box

I actually completed this on Father’s Day and got it in the mail this past Tuesday. After the glue up, I had to plane the fingers that were proud as well as lay down a finish. I cleaned up the joints with a low-angle block plane one evening and then oiled it with two coats of Watco Danish Oil (Natural) on Sunday and Monday.

Dad received it last evening. He had just walked in the door when I called so I got to listen while he opened it. That was pretty cool to hear his reaction. He didn’t realize at first I had made the box. I guess that is a good thing because he didn’t think it was a mess. After dad got to the wine I told him to have it with a tasty steak this weekend but not to toss the wooden box because I had made it and that was the actual gift. He was impressed and kept saying he didn’t know how I pulled off the joints. We had a good conversation about the process which lead to some brainstorming about the project he was working on for mom’s birthday in August. It was a fine conversation. :-)

The completed and oiled box.

The gift holding another gift.

Closeup of the box. I used a brass pin to keep the lid from sliding completely out of it’s grooves.

Update: I replaced the smaller pics with bigger ones. I had grabbed the previews from flickr instead of these bigger ones.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN